Page 6 of Romancing the Throne
Elowin sat down next to me, stretching his legs out and settling back on his elbows. It showed off the length of him, and I couldn’t help noting the curve of his calf muscles and the breadth of his chest. His face was flushed and his hairline was damp, which somehow made him even more handsome.
I put that thought firmly to one side. I was on my way to marry theprince. This was no time to be thinking about handsome guards or their very distracting calves.
Elowin caught me watching him and smiled. “Shall we open that cider?”
“Oh! Yes, of course!” I scrambled to open his pack and pulled out the bottle, and after a moment’s consideration, the pork pies. The lunch at the farmhouse was a distant memory, and my mouth watered at the sight of them. “There will be somewhere to buy dinner, won’t there?”
Elowin nodded. “There’s a tavern we should reach before nightfall.”
Atavern. I had never been to a tavern. Hillstowe was far too small to have one, and even if it had, my parents wouldn’t have allowed me to visit it.
“Is it allowed?” I asked carefully. “Is it proper, I mean?”
“To go to a tavern?” Elowin asked, brows arching. “Why wouldn’t it be allowed?”
“Well, there is drinking,” I said, “and possibly, um, carousing.”
“Yes, that’s the point of a tavern.” His mouth curved in a smile. “Though the carousing is optional. It’s a place to buy some food and drink, and to put your feet up, and to stay the night in a bed instead of a pile of bracken in the woods.”
“But is it suitable lodgings for someone from a genteel family?” I asked. “I don’t want to upset the prince if he were to hear about it. He might not approve.”
His mouth twitched again. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Sparrow. Even Prince Aldian has stayed in his fair share of taverns.”
He was making fun of me a little, I thought, but the sudden warmth I felt wasn’t just because of that. It was because I liked the way he called me Sparrow. My parents would be very disapproving if they’d heard him call me that, but Elowin had said that he liked sparrows too.
“I haven’t seen much of the world,” I said.
“You said you’ve never left Hillstowe.”
I nodded. “But I’m looking forward to seeing everything. Even a tavern.”
Elowin laughed. “I think you’ll like it.”
I hoped so. I was getting the impression that the world outside of Hillstowe was very different than I was used to, and while part of me worried that I was unprepared for such an adventure, another tiny, secretly bold part of me was excited for the chance to explore before I met the prince and he offered to marry me.
Which was the purpose of this trip, I reminded myself sternly. Not making visits to taverns with handsome elf guards and carousing, whatever form that took.
We packed up our things and continued to walk.
“How, exactly, do youcarouse?” I asked as we rounded a little bend in the road and a vista of trees and fields andhedges appeared in front of us like a beautiful patchwork quilt.
And Elowin laughed and said, “Wait and see!”
It took us another few hours, and the light was fading when we reached our destination.
The tavern was at a crossroads. It looked much the same as a regular farmhouse from the outside, complete with a stable and outbuilding. A sign hung from a bracket by the door. There was a white swan painted on it.
“The White Swan,” Elowin said, nodding, and I realized the painting on the sign served as the tavern’s name. “The food is hot and the beds are comfortable. I can’t speak for the quality of the carousing, though. We may need to bring our own.”
And then he winked at me, and for some unaccountable reason my face burned. Fortunately, I didn’t have to reply because Elowin was already striding up to the door of the tavern and pulling it open.
I hurried to follow him in.
The taproom of the tavern was large. It contained three trestle tables with bench seats at each one. It wasn’t very crowded; there were three elves at one table and two at the next, so Elowin and I dumped our packs at the third table. I sat down while Elowin went to speak to the woman behind the bar.
The tavern was warm thanks to the fire that was burning in the fireplace. The air tasted of woodsmoke and hot food. The couple at the other table were talking in low voices, faces wreathed in smiles. The three elves at the other table were a little louder, laughing, and one of them ran her fingers over the strings of a lute that sat on the table in front of her. I suspected if there was to be any carousing, it would start there.
Elowin came back bearing two pints of amber liquid andplonked down in the seat opposite me. “They only have one room, so we’ll have to share tonight.”
